|| Common Core Standards Alignment - Fahrenheit 451
Arrow_down2
COMMON CORE STANDARDS ALIGNMENT
FAHRENHEIT 451 LITERATURE GUIDE; GRADES
9-11
READING: LITERATURE
GRADES 9-10
KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
RL.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Note-Taking and Summarizing activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.9-10.2. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the
course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an
objective summary of the text.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Note-Taking and Summarizing activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.9-10.3. Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations)
develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the
theme.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
CRAFT AND STRUCTURE
RL.9-10.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including
figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on
meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or
informal tone).
Assessment Preparation activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.9-10.5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it
(e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery,
tension, or surprise.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
INTEGRATION OF KNOW LEDGE AND IDEAS
RL.9-10.9. Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work
Allusions/Terminology
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RANGE OF READING AND LEVEL OF TEXT COMPLEXITY
RL.9-10.10. By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and
poems, in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high
end of the range.
By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the
high end of the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
GRADES 11-12
KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
RL.11-12.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves
matters uncertain.
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Note-Taking and Summarizing activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.11-12.2. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development
over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a
complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Note-Taking and Summarizing activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.11-12.3. Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements
of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are
introduced and developed).
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
CRAFT AND STRUCTURE
RL.11-12.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including
figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and
tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or
beautiful.
Allusions/Terminology
Assessment Preparation activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.11-12.5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text
(e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution)
contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.11-12.6. Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly
stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
INTEGRATION OF KNOW LEDGE AND IDEAS
RL.11-12.9. Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century
foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat
similar themes or topics.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RANGE OF READING AND LEVEL OF TEXT COMPLEXITY
RL.11-12.10. By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and
poems, in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the
high end of the range.
READING: INFORMATIONAL TEXTS
GRADES 9-10
KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
RI.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
RI.9-10.2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text,
including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary
of the text.
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
RI.9-10.3. Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order
in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are
drawn between them.
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
GRADES 11-12
KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
RI.11-12.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves
matters uncertain.
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
WRITING
GRADES 9-10
PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF WRITING
W.9-10.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined
in standards 1–3 above.)
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.9-10.5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying
a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.9-10.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared
writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display
information flexibly and dynamically.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RESEARCH TO BUILD AND PRESENT KNOWLEDGE
W.9-10.7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including
a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate;
synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under
investigation.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.9-10.8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using
advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research
question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding
plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RANGE OF WRITING
W.9-10.10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and
shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
GRADES 11-12
PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF WRITING
W.11-12.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined
in standards 1–3 above.)
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.11-12.5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or
trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and
audience.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.11-12.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or
shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RESEARCH TO BUILD AND PRESENT KNOWLEDGE
W.11-12.7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question
(including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when
appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject
under investigation.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.11-12.8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using
advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the
task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of
ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for
citation.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.11-12.9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and
research.
Apply grades 11–12 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-,
nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two
or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics”).
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RANGE OF WRITING
W.11-12.10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision)
and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes.
Standards Focus activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SPEAKING & LISTENING
GRADES 9-10
COMPREHENSION AND COLLABORATION
SL.9-10.1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in
groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on
others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
PRESENTATION OF KNOW LEDGE AND IDEAS
SL.9-10.4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically
such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance,
and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SL.9-10.5. Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive
elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add
interest.
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SL.9-10.6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal
English when indicated or appropriate.
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
GRADES 11-12
COMPREHENSION AND COLLABORATION
SL.11-12.1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in
groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on
others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
PRESENTATION OF KNOW LEDGE AND IDEAS
SL.11-12.4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct
perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives
are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose,
audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SL.11-12.5. Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive
elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add
interest.
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SL.11-12.6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal
English when indicated or appropriate.
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
LANGUAGE
GRADES 9-10
CONVENTIONS OF STANDARD ENGLISH
L.9-10.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when
writing or speaking.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Assessment Preparation activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.9-10.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation,
and spelling when writing.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Assessment Preparation activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
KNOW LEDGE OF LANGUAGE
L.9-10.3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to
make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
VOCABULARY ACQUISITION AND USE
L.9-10.4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases
based on GR ADES 9–10 RE ADI NG AND CONTENT, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.9-10.5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word
meanings.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.9-10.6. Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases,
sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level;
demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase
important to comprehension or expression.
Allusions/Terminology
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
GRADES 11-12
CONVENTIONS OF STANDARD ENGLISH
L.11-12.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when
writing or speaking.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Assessment Preparation activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities L.11-12.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation,
and spelling when writing.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Assessment Preparation activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
KNOW LEDGE OF LANGUAGE
L.11-12.3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts,
to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or
listening.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.11-12.4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases
based on GR ADES 11–12 RE ADING AND CONTENT, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.11-12.5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in
word meanings.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.11-12.6. Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases,
sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level;
demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase
important to comprehension or expression.
Allusions/Terminology
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Read
Standards Focus activities
Question #1: “Write what the world would be like without books.”
• Introduction to new unit
• Begin reading Fahrenheit 451
• Collect metaphors (5 per chapter)
• Read part one and questions || Fahrenheit 451
The three main sections of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 all end in fire. The novel focuses on Guy Montag, a fireman. In the first section, we discover that Montag is a professional book burner, expected to start fires instead of putting them out. For years he has done his job obediently and well. Then one day, he is called upon to burn the books of a Mrs. Hudson, who prefers to die rather than leave her library. Furtively, Montag pockets some of her books, haunted by the idea that a life without books might not be worth living after all. As Montag begins to read deeply for the first time in his life,Fahrenheit 451's second section traces his growing dissatisfaction with the society he is paid to defend. He seeks out the counsel of an old man named Faber, whom he once let off easy on a reading charge. Together they agree to copy a salvaged Bible, in case anything should happen to the original. Montag's boss at the firehouse, Beatty, senses his disenchantment and interrogates him until their confrontation is interrupted by a fire call. Responding to the address, Montag is expected to start a conflagration considerably closer to home. Fahrenheit 451's final section finds Montag seizing his own fate for the first time. He avenges himself on Beatty and strikes out for the countryside. There he finds a resistance force of readers, each one responsible for memorizing—and thereby preserving—the entire contents of a different book. As they bide their time in hope of a better future, a flash appears on the horizon: While society was staring at full-wall television screens and medicating itself into a coma, the largest fire yet has broken out. The book's three holocausts expand concentrically. The death of a stranger by fire in the first third becomes the destruction of Montag's own house in the second. The implication is that, had Montag paid greater attention to his neighbor's plight, he might not have found himself in the same predicament soon afterward. Trouble down the street leads to trouble at home, and trouble at home to trouble abroad. For a book once pigeonholed as science fiction, this structural savvy is one more proof that Bradbury started out writing for the pulps and wound up writing for the ages. "It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. "
Question 2: “What is the future going to be like? What inventions do you think will be around to make our lives more interesting?”
• Share metaphors
• Discussion on first half of Part One
• Reading time || Essential Question 3; Round Table Discussion; Part I Quiz; Reading Time
Arrow_down2
Question 3: “Do you think that television is making people more or less intelligent?”
• Part One Due/Questions
• Round Table Discussions
Quiz
• Reading time (Part 2 due next class) || Essential Question 4; Round Table Discussions; Myvocabulary.com & lit. vocab. & metaphors
Arrow_down2
Question 4: “This is a different take on Question 1. If all books were banned and reading was illegial, how would your life change?”
• Part Two reading comp. questions due today
Round Table Discussions
• Review vocabulary both myvocabulary.com for Farenheit 451 & literary vocabulary
• Share metaphors for part 2 || Essential Question 5; Write; Round table discussion; video clip
Arrow_down2
Question 5: “Write about a positive experience that you had with reading and books. Think about a time when you believed that an idea from a book changed you.”
• Quiz literary terms
• Round table discussion
• Ray Bradbury video || Finish Novel; Discussions; & Essay
Arrow_down2
• Finish Fahrenheit 451 for today’s class
• Quiz on book and words
• Bring 15 metaphors
• All questions are due
• Round Table Discussion on novel
• What does reading have to offer? What does it have that scares people?
• View Pleasantville online
• Write essay comparing themes of F451 and Pleasantville (400 words or more)
HW: complete essay (400-500 words) || Summary of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Arrow_down2
==Summary of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury== These section summaries from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury free your brain from having to figure out what happens and allows it to examine why it happens. ==The Hearth and the Salamander== Guy Montag is a fireman in the future. Firemen in the future start fires. Books are illegal and firemen burn books and the houses where they are found along with an occasional reader. Guy believes lighting books on fire is a noble profession; much in the same way a 12-year old believes having a match fight in the kitchen is an excellent way to spend a Friday night.
On his way home one evening, Guy meets his new neighbor, Clarisse, who challenges everything Guy believes. She mentions, for example, that firemen used to put out fires and not start them. Guy is strangely attracted to her. Although reading, taking walks alone, and engaging in conversation is unacceptable to Guy, an adult fireman being attracted to a seventeen-year-old complete stranger is OK.
Clarisse asks him if he is happy. As Guy walks into his home he realizes he's not. As he enters his bedroom he notices Mildred, his ear phone wearing, TV watching, no-brained drone of a wife has attempted suicide (again). Two hospital workers arrive and pump her stomach as the sonic boom of fighter jets is heard overhead.
Guy runs into Clarisse the next day on her way to a psychiatric appointment which the government has forced her to undergo.
Remember when you worked at McDonalds, headed over to Burger King, and ate three Whoppers? As a result, you felt guilty peddling Big Macs to unsuspecting meat-eaters. That's how Guy feels at the firehouse after speaking with Clarisse.
The mechanical hound at the firehouse makes Montag feel uneasy, not "there's a doberman sniffing my crotch uneasy," but a "there's a mechanical hound that could track me down, inject me with poison, and kill me, and I'm feeling a little freaked out right now because I'm harboring illegal thoughts about reading, but I'm OK about my attraction to the seventeen-year old stranger even though I'm an adult firefighter with a wife" uneasy.
The two speak daily on Montag's commute home. At work Montag begins to ask questions about what firemen used to do. The alarm rings and the crew speeds toward a house where books have been discovered in the attic. As the books, the house, and the old lady who lives there burst into flames, Guy sneaks a book under his coat.
Montag returns home, realizes his relationship with his wife is meaningless. She only talks about TV. He calls in sick to work and tells Mildred he wants to quit. They argue. Captain Beatty, Montag's boss arrives. He knows what's going on, explains to Montag the danger of books, allows him to come to work later and return the book he stole from the old lady's. Beatty leaves and Montag begins reading Gulliver's Travels (which many a high school student believe is punishment enough).
Analysis: Montag's world is crumbling. The society in which he lives is constantly at war and no one is able to think for himself. Suicides are common. Book burning is the law. Up until meeting Clarisse, Montag is not only fine with it, he's an agent of the book burners. Clarisse has opened his eyes to a new reality. Just like the McDonalds worker who begins eating Whoppers and finds Big Mac's repulsive, Montag realizes he must change, but change in this society is dangerous.==The Sieve and the Sand==
Montag and Mildred read. Montag has no clue what he is reading. Because Sparknotes are no longer available, Montag decides he needs a teacher and calls a man he met in the park long ago. Montag goes back to his books and ponders whether or not his copy of the Bible is the last one in existence. Mildred invites friends over to watch interactive TV. Montag hops on the subway to go to Faber's, the reader he met at the park.
As he attempts to memorize Bible verses, he is constantly distracted by a toothpaste jingle, gets angry, waves the book, and starts shouting. He arrives at Faber's, who explains why people are unhappy: they need quality information, time to digest it, and the freedom to act on it.
Montag returns home, turns off the TV, and reads to Mildred's friends. He then makes fun of them and tells them to go home to their miserable lives. Montag goes to work and hands Beatty the book. Beatty confounds Montag with a litany of literary quotations. The alarm rings and the firefighters head to Montag's house.
Analysis: If ever you rob a bank and get away with it, don't buy a mansion and three Ferraris. If ever you live in a society that burns books and you steal one, don't start waving it at people while yelling. Montag is obviously unable to handle the responsibility thrust upon him.
Burning Bright
Mildred speeds away in a taxi. Montag's house is destroyed and Montag is arrested. Beatty taunts Montag with more literary quotes and learns a valuable lesson: never taunt somebody with literary quotes who is holding a flamethrower. After Faber becomes charcoal, Montag is attacked by the mechanical hound, which injects anesthesia into Montag's leg before being blasted by the flame thrower.
Montag flees, hears that war has been declared, and that he is being pursued by law enforcement and a new mechanical hound. Faber instructs him to follow the railroad tracks to St. Louis.
Montag watches himself being chased. He reaches the railroad tracks and meets a group of intellectuals. The men invite Montag to enjoy the chase on his portable TV. The news shows the pursuers kill a man they identify as Montag. The intellectuals have perfected a way of memorizing books.
As Montag ponders his new life, jets fly over and destroy the city. The intellectuals discuss their plan to reintroduce books when the time is right.
Analysis: Montag is reborn to a more meaningful existence and is compared to a Phoenix, a mythological bird who rises from the ashes.
|| Fahrenheit 451 Quotes
Arrow_down2
Fahrenheit 451 Quotes (with page numbers)
Next time your teacher asks you for Fahrenheit 451 analysis, use one of these quotes instead of looking stupid.
Quote:White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows. My uncle drove slowly on a highway once. He drove forty miles an hour and they jailed him for two days (9).
Analysis: Clarisse tells Montag about her "strange" family, the one that actually converses with each other and enjoys nature. This shows just how shallow Montag's society has become. Nobody thinks, one of many Bradbury predictions that have come true.
For example, instead of taking the time to actually read this novel, you hopped online looking for some fancy Fahrenheit 451 quotes without taking the time to do your own analysis (Disregard that last part if, in fact, you read the novel and are just looking for a greater understanding of it (If you are looking for a greater understanding of it, we'll be over later to burn your copy of the book)).
Quote:They had this machine. They had two machines really. One of them slid down into your stomach like a black cobra down an echoing well looking for all the old water and the old time gathered there (14).
Analysis: Bradbury uses figurative language several times in the novel to give machines animal-like qualities. Here we have a simile, a stomach pump being compared to a snake. The snakes are here to revive Montag's wife who has attempted suicide again. Suicides are popular in Montag's society.
Quote:It's really fun. It'll be even more fun when we can afford to have the fourth wall installed. How long you figure before we save up and get the fourth wall torn out and a wall-TV put in. It's only two thousand dollars (20).
Analysis: I tried to help a friend put together a budget. He had massive credit card debt and no savings. I encouraged him to begin paying down his debt and create a savings program. He insisted it was impossible. We went over his expenses. He owned two giant TVs and paid nearly $150 dollars a month on cable. I suggested he cut his cable bill by $50 and start paying off one of his credit cards. He refused. He bought another TV for his bedroom. His wife lost her job and their home went into foreclosure. Now he has his three TVs in a one bedroom apartment. Bradbury was prophetic.
|| Teaching Fahrenheit 451
Arrow_down2
==Teaching Fahrenheit 451== Once you get over the fact that e-readers and iPhones have made the premise of Fahrenheit 451 irrelevant, you'll be burning down the classroom.
Most students enjoy the novel. You may need to explain the figurative language to help students comprehend the novel's theme. Regardless of level, all students should be able to give a Fahrenheit 451 summary without much difficulty. A Fahrenheit 451 analysis, however, probably depends on your teaching expertise. Effective activities include irony charts, suspense graphic organizers, and a chart detailing the predictions from the novel that have come true.
The book's message must be shared. In a society that overly depends on outward stimulation as opposed to intelligent thought, a book like this should be taught in all high schools. ==Fahrenheit 451 Lesson Plan== Students will bring up the whole, "I'd like to see these fools burn my Kindle (no pun intended)!" anachronistic issue. Admit that Bradbury's inability to foresee the inevitable elimination of traditional books makes the novel less relevant then spring this assignment on them.
Instruct students to make a two-column chart. On the left-side of the chart, readers should write down a Bradbury prediction. On the right side of the chart, readers will write how that prediction has come true. Have them list 5-10 predictions. ==Fahrenheit 451 Lesson Example== ||
Bradbury's Predictions
1) Mildred and her friends interact with TV shows.
2) There are machines where people go to get money 24 hours a day. ||
Prediction Coming True
1) Internet, iPhones, Twitter, Facebook, and other media make interacting with TV shows common.
2) ATMs || ==ELA Common Core Standards Covered== Reading Fahrenheit 451 will help you cover the following ELA common core standards for reading and writing. This is for your administrator, not your students. Kids need student-friendly worded objectives.
RL.9-10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
RL.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
RL.9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
RL.9-10.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone)
RL.9-10.5 Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
W.9-10.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
L.9-10.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
SL.9-10.2 Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source.
==Fahrenheit 451 Summary == Guy Montag, while walking home from work after a long day, meets Clarisse, a vivacious girl who opens his eyes to the futility of his life and of his society. Guy returns home to his wife who has attempted suicide one more time. Guy rebels, but in a society that frowns on individuals, undergoes constant external stimulation, and prohibits the reading of books, he may be in over his head. Making his change of heart even more difficult is Montag's profession. He's a fireman whose job it is to find books...and burn them.==Fahrenheit 451 Analysis==
Legendary Science Fiction writer Ray Bradbury has written hundreds of novels, plays, and short stories including The Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine, The Illustrated Man and, perhaps his most popular, Fahrenheit 451. A Fahrenheit 451 analysis should include the following:
Allusion: Because the central activity of the novel's protagonist is to find books and burn them, along with the house that contains them, there are numerous literary allusions.
Irony: Firemen start fires. Happy people try to kill themselves. Schools promote reckless behavior, movie watching, and sports playing. People are arrested for going on walks.
Suspense: Bradbury creates suspense through pacing, foreshadowing, and dangerous action.
Symbolism: The novel teems with symbolism.
Figurative Language: Metaphors, similes, personification, synechdoche, and hyperbole allows the novel to be interpreted on many levels.
Imagery: Burning houses, ghostlike visitors, desperate rebels, and many more haunting images grace the novel's pages.
Conflict: The novel details one man's inner conflict and his conflict with society.
Bradbury's novel has stood the test of time. Written shortly after World War II, Bradbury's dystopia looks shockingly similar to modern society. The following topics will make your class discussions productive:
Elements of Science Fiction: Startling predictions include a society with TV screens the size of walls; individuals who sit around all day and watch TV; people who never read; the encouragement of recklessness and an overexaggeration of the importance of sports, ATMs, and many more.
The Influcence of the Media: Bradbury's fictional society spends its time being visually stimulated. The media controls individual thought.
Peer Pressure: Teenagers understand peer influence more than adults. The pressure of conformity pervades the novel.
The Importance of Books: The society loses its ability to think because it no longer reads.
Fahrenheit 451 Study Questions
These Fahrenheit 451 questions will help you to prepare for a class discussion or quiz on the book. They'll test your understanding of the work and get you thinking about the important ideas behind it.
1. Other than censorship what problems exist in the dystopic society envisioned by Bradbury?
Violent youth, fast cars, invasive media, intolerant minority and special interest groups, the disintegration of familial ties, the ostracism of anyone who is unusual, and the ineffectiveness of government schools all play a role in the disintegration of Bradbury's dystopic society.
2. To what extent have the Fahrenheit 451 predictions come true?
Violent crime among youth has increased steadily over the past 20 years. People watch TV on their phone. Political correctness pervades art, media, and politics. American schools have fallen behind their counterparts. Students, for example, often read study guides instead of reading the actual novel.
3. What do you make of Beatty's ability to quote literature and his desire to destroy books?
It is apparent that Beatty has not only read literature but has studied it closely as evidenced by his ability to quote it. Because literature has no definite answer, often contradicts itself, and is fluid in meaning, Beatty despises it. He wants to be in control, but he cannot control the meaning of literature and the study of ideas.
4. What Fahrenheit 451 predictions not mentioned above have come true?
ATMs, unheard of in 1950 when Fahrenheit 451 was originally published, large screen TVs, interactive media (Internet, for example), the proliferation of Caesarian sections, abortion on demand, music and TVs on subways, trains, the dentist office, and grocery stores, the watering down of religion, and an "inefficient, top heavy, tax-mad government" (61) are prevalent today.
5. Faber defines the value of books. What is it and does it apply only to books?
Books have quality, pores, features, texture, depth, telling detail, fresh detail. Good writers touch life. Faber comments that society needs quality, be it books, good TV programs, plays, or thoughtful music, Society needs time to digest the meaning of things and the freedom to act on it.
6. Why do Faber and Montag feel they must change the way things are?
Nobody's happy. Suicides abound. They're always at war.
COMMON CORE STANDARDS ALIGNMENT
FAHRENHEIT 451 LITERATURE GUIDE; GRADES
9-11
READING: LITERATURE
GRADES 9-10
KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
RL.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Note-Taking and Summarizing activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.9-10.2. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the
course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an
objective summary of the text.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Note-Taking and Summarizing activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.9-10.3. Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations)
develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the
theme.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
CRAFT AND STRUCTURE
RL.9-10.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including
figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on
meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or
informal tone).
Assessment Preparation activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.9-10.5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it
(e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery,
tension, or surprise.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
INTEGRATION OF KNOW LEDGE AND IDEAS
RL.9-10.9. Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work
Allusions/Terminology
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RANGE OF READING AND LEVEL OF TEXT COMPLEXITY
RL.9-10.10. By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and
poems, in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high
end of the range.
By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the
high end of the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
GRADES 11-12
KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
RL.11-12.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves
matters uncertain.
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Note-Taking and Summarizing activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.11-12.2. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development
over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a
complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Note-Taking and Summarizing activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.11-12.3. Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements
of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are
introduced and developed).
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
CRAFT AND STRUCTURE
RL.11-12.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including
figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and
tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or
beautiful.
Allusions/Terminology
Assessment Preparation activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.11-12.5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text
(e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution)
contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.11-12.6. Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly
stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
INTEGRATION OF KNOW LEDGE AND IDEAS
RL.11-12.9. Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century
foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat
similar themes or topics.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RANGE OF READING AND LEVEL OF TEXT COMPLEXITY
RL.11-12.10. By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and
poems, in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the
high end of the range.
READING: INFORMATIONAL TEXTS
GRADES 9-10
KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
RI.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
RI.9-10.2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text,
including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary
of the text.
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
RI.9-10.3. Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order
in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are
drawn between them.
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
GRADES 11-12
KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
RI.11-12.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves
matters uncertain.
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
WRITING
GRADES 9-10
PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF WRITING
W.9-10.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined
in standards 1–3 above.)
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.9-10.5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying
a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.9-10.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared
writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display
information flexibly and dynamically.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RESEARCH TO BUILD AND PRESENT KNOWLEDGE
W.9-10.7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including
a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate;
synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under
investigation.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.9-10.8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using
advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research
question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding
plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RANGE OF WRITING
W.9-10.10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and
shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
GRADES 11-12
PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF WRITING
W.11-12.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined
in standards 1–3 above.)
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.11-12.5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or
trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and
audience.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.11-12.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or
shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RESEARCH TO BUILD AND PRESENT KNOWLEDGE
W.11-12.7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question
(including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when
appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject
under investigation.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.11-12.8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using
advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the
task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of
ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for
citation.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.11-12.9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and
research.
Apply grades 11–12 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-,
nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two
or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics”).
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RANGE OF WRITING
W.11-12.10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision)
and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes.
Standards Focus activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SPEAKING & LISTENING
GRADES 9-10
COMPREHENSION AND COLLABORATION
SL.9-10.1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in
groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on
others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
PRESENTATION OF KNOW LEDGE AND IDEAS
SL.9-10.4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically
such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance,
and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SL.9-10.5. Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive
elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add
interest.
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SL.9-10.6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal
English when indicated or appropriate.
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
GRADES 11-12
COMPREHENSION AND COLLABORATION
SL.11-12.1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in
groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on
others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
PRESENTATION OF KNOW LEDGE AND IDEAS
SL.11-12.4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct
perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives
are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose,
audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SL.11-12.5. Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive
elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add
interest.
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SL.11-12.6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal
English when indicated or appropriate.
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
LANGUAGE
GRADES 9-10
CONVENTIONS OF STANDARD ENGLISH
L.9-10.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when
writing or speaking.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Assessment Preparation activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.9-10.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation,
and spelling when writing.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Assessment Preparation activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
KNOW LEDGE OF LANGUAGE
L.9-10.3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to
make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
VOCABULARY ACQUISITION AND USE
L.9-10.4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases
based on GR ADES 9–10 RE ADI NG AND CONTENT, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.9-10.5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word
meanings.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.9-10.6. Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases,
sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level;
demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase
important to comprehension or expression.
Allusions/Terminology
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
GRADES 11-12
CONVENTIONS OF STANDARD ENGLISH
L.11-12.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when
writing or speaking.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Assessment Preparation activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities L.11-12.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation,
and spelling when writing.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Assessment Preparation activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
KNOW LEDGE OF LANGUAGE
L.11-12.3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts,
to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or
listening.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.11-12.4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases
based on GR ADES 11–12 RE ADING AND CONTENT, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.11-12.5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in
word meanings.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.11-12.6. Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases,
sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level;
demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase
important to comprehension or expression.
Allusions/Terminology
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Read
Standards Focus activities
Question #1: “Write what the world would be like without books.”
• Introduction to new unit
• Begin reading Fahrenheit 451
• Collect metaphors (5 per chapter)
• Read part one and questions
The three main sections of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 all end in fire. The novel focuses on Guy Montag, a fireman. In the first section, we discover that Montag is a professional book burner, expected to start fires instead of putting them out. For years he has done his job obediently and well. Then one day, he is called upon to burn the books of a Mrs. Hudson, who prefers to die rather than leave her library. Furtively, Montag pockets some of her books, haunted by the idea that a life without books might not be worth living after all. As Montag begins to read deeply for the first time in his life,Fahrenheit 451's second section traces his growing dissatisfaction with the society he is paid to defend. He seeks out the counsel of an old man named Faber, whom he once let off easy on a reading charge. Together they agree to copy a salvaged Bible, in case anything should happen to the original. Montag's boss at the firehouse, Beatty, senses his disenchantment and interrogates him until their confrontation is interrupted by a fire call. Responding to the address, Montag is expected to start a conflagration considerably closer to home. Fahrenheit 451's final section finds Montag seizing his own fate for the first time. He avenges himself on Beatty and strikes out for the countryside. There he finds a resistance force of readers, each one responsible for memorizing—and thereby preserving—the entire contents of a different book. As they bide their time in hope of a better future, a flash appears on the horizon: While society was staring at full-wall television screens and medicating itself into a coma, the largest fire yet has broken out. The book's three holocausts expand concentrically. The death of a stranger by fire in the first third becomes the destruction of Montag's own house in the second. The implication is that, had Montag paid greater attention to his neighbor's plight, he might not have found himself in the same predicament soon afterward. Trouble down the street leads to trouble at home, and trouble at home to trouble abroad. For a book once pigeonholed as science fiction, this structural savvy is one more proof that Bradbury started out writing for the pulps and wound up writing for the ages. "It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. "
Question 2: “What is the future going to be like? What inventions do you think will be around to make our lives more interesting?”
• Share metaphors
• Discussion on first half of Part One
• Reading time
Essential Question 3; Round Table Discussion; Part I Quiz; Reading Time
Arrow_down2
Question 3: “Do you think that television is making people more or less intelligent?”
• Part One Due/Questions
• Round Table Discussions
Question 4: “This is a different take on Question 1. If all books were banned and reading was illegial, how would your life change?”
• Part Two reading comp. questions due today
Round Table Discussions
• Review vocabulary both myvocabulary.com for Farenheit 451 & literary vocabulary
• Share metaphors for part 2
Essential Question 5; Write; Round table discussion; video clip
Arrow_down2
Question 5: “Write about a positive experience that you had with reading and books. Think about a time when you believed that an idea from a book changed you.”
• Quiz literary terms
• Round table discussion
• Ray Bradbury video
Finish Novel; Discussions; & Essay
Arrow_down2
• Finish Fahrenheit 451 for today’s class
• Quiz on book and words
• Bring 15 metaphors
• All questions are due
• Round Table Discussion on novel
• What does reading have to offer? What does it have that scares people?
• View Pleasantville online
• Write essay comparing themes of F451 and Pleasantville (400 words or more)
HW: complete essay (400-500 words)
Summary of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Arrow_down2
Summary of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
These section summaries from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury free your brain from having to figure out what happens and allows it to examine why it happens. ==The Hearth and the Salamander== Guy Montag is a fireman in the future. Firemen in the future start fires. Books are illegal and firemen burn books and the houses where they are found along with an occasional reader. Guy believes lighting books on fire is a noble profession; much in the same way a 12-year old believes having a match fight in the kitchen is an excellent way to spend a Friday night.
On his way home one evening, Guy meets his new neighbor, Clarisse, who challenges everything Guy believes. She mentions, for example, that firemen used to put out fires and not start them. Guy is strangely attracted to her. Although reading, taking walks alone, and engaging in conversation is unacceptable to Guy, an adult fireman being attracted to a seventeen-year-old complete stranger is OK.
Clarisse asks him if he is happy. As Guy walks into his home he realizes he's not. As he enters his bedroom he notices Mildred, his ear phone wearing, TV watching, no-brained drone of a wife has attempted suicide (again). Two hospital workers arrive and pump her stomach as the sonic boom of fighter jets is heard overhead.
Guy runs into Clarisse the next day on her way to a psychiatric appointment which the government has forced her to undergo.
Remember when you worked at McDonalds, headed over to Burger King, and ate three Whoppers? As a result, you felt guilty peddling Big Macs to unsuspecting meat-eaters. That's how Guy feels at the firehouse after speaking with Clarisse.
The mechanical hound at the firehouse makes Montag feel uneasy, not "there's a doberman sniffing my crotch uneasy," but a "there's a mechanical hound that could track me down, inject me with poison, and kill me, and I'm feeling a little freaked out right now because I'm harboring illegal thoughts about reading, but I'm OK about my attraction to the seventeen-year old stranger even though I'm an adult firefighter with a wife" uneasy.
The two speak daily on Montag's commute home. At work Montag begins to ask questions about what firemen used to do. The alarm rings and the crew speeds toward a house where books have been discovered in the attic. As the books, the house, and the old lady who lives there burst into flames, Guy sneaks a book under his coat.
Montag returns home, realizes his relationship with his wife is meaningless. She only talks about TV. He calls in sick to work and tells Mildred he wants to quit. They argue. Captain Beatty, Montag's boss arrives. He knows what's going on, explains to Montag the danger of books, allows him to come to work later and return the book he stole from the old lady's. Beatty leaves and Montag begins reading Gulliver's Travels (which many a high school student believe is punishment enough).
Analysis: Montag's world is crumbling. The society in which he lives is constantly at war and no one is able to think for himself. Suicides are common. Book burning is the law. Up until meeting Clarisse, Montag is not only fine with it, he's an agent of the book burners. Clarisse has opened his eyes to a new reality. Just like the McDonalds worker who begins eating Whoppers and finds Big Mac's repulsive, Montag realizes he must change, but change in this society is dangerous.==The Sieve and the Sand==
Montag and Mildred read. Montag has no clue what he is reading. Because Sparknotes are no longer available, Montag decides he needs a teacher and calls a man he met in the park long ago. Montag goes back to his books and ponders whether or not his copy of the Bible is the last one in existence. Mildred invites friends over to watch interactive TV. Montag hops on the subway to go to Faber's, the reader he met at the park.
As he attempts to memorize Bible verses, he is constantly distracted by a toothpaste jingle, gets angry, waves the book, and starts shouting. He arrives at Faber's, who explains why people are unhappy: they need quality information, time to digest it, and the freedom to act on it.
Montag returns home, turns off the TV, and reads to Mildred's friends. He then makes fun of them and tells them to go home to their miserable lives. Montag goes to work and hands Beatty the book. Beatty confounds Montag with a litany of literary quotations. The alarm rings and the firefighters head to Montag's house.
Analysis: If ever you rob a bank and get away with it, don't buy a mansion and three Ferraris. If ever you live in a society that burns books and you steal one, don't start waving it at people while yelling. Montag is obviously unable to handle the responsibility thrust upon him.
Burning Bright
Mildred speeds away in a taxi. Montag's house is destroyed and Montag is arrested. Beatty taunts Montag with more literary quotes and learns a valuable lesson: never taunt somebody with literary quotes who is holding a flamethrower. After Faber becomes charcoal, Montag is attacked by the mechanical hound, which injects anesthesia into Montag's leg before being blasted by the flame thrower.
Montag flees, hears that war has been declared, and that he is being pursued by law enforcement and a new mechanical hound. Faber instructs him to follow the railroad tracks to St. Louis.
Montag watches himself being chased. He reaches the railroad tracks and meets a group of intellectuals. The men invite Montag to enjoy the chase on his portable TV. The news shows the pursuers kill a man they identify as Montag. The intellectuals have perfected a way of memorizing books.
As Montag ponders his new life, jets fly over and destroy the city. The intellectuals discuss their plan to reintroduce books when the time is right.
Analysis: Montag is reborn to a more meaningful existence and is compared to a Phoenix, a mythological bird who rises from the ashes.
Fahrenheit 451 Quotes
Arrow_down2
Fahrenheit 451 Quotes (with page numbers)
Next time your teacher asks you for Fahrenheit 451 analysis, use one of these quotes instead of looking stupid.
Quote:White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows. My uncle drove slowly on a highway once. He drove forty miles an hour and they jailed him for two days (9).
Analysis: Clarisse tells Montag about her "strange" family, the one that actually converses with each other and enjoys nature. This shows just how shallow Montag's society has become. Nobody thinks, one of many Bradbury predictions that have come true.
For example, instead of taking the time to actually read this novel, you hopped online looking for some fancy Fahrenheit 451 quotes without taking the time to do your own analysis (Disregard that last part if, in fact, you read the novel and are just looking for a greater understanding of it (If you are looking for a greater understanding of it, we'll be over later to burn your copy of the book)).
Quote:They had this machine. They had two machines really. One of them slid down into your stomach like a black cobra down an echoing well looking for all the old water and the old time gathered there (14).
Analysis: Bradbury uses figurative language several times in the novel to give machines animal-like qualities. Here we have a simile, a stomach pump being compared to a snake. The snakes are here to revive Montag's wife who has attempted suicide again. Suicides are popular in Montag's society.
Quote:It's really fun. It'll be even more fun when we can afford to have the fourth wall installed. How long you figure before we save up and get the fourth wall torn out and a wall-TV put in. It's only two thousand dollars (20).
Analysis: I tried to help a friend put together a budget. He had massive credit card debt and no savings. I encouraged him to begin paying down his debt and create a savings program. He insisted it was impossible. We went over his expenses. He owned two giant TVs and paid nearly $150 dollars a month on cable. I suggested he cut his cable bill by $50 and start paying off one of his credit cards. He refused. He bought another TV for his bedroom. His wife lost her job and their home went into foreclosure. Now he has his three TVs in a one bedroom apartment. Bradbury was prophetic.
Teaching Fahrenheit 451
Arrow_down2
Teaching Fahrenheit 451
Once you get over the fact that e-readers and iPhones have made the premise of Fahrenheit 451 irrelevant, you'll be burning down the classroom.
Most students enjoy the novel. You may need to explain the figurative language to help students comprehend the novel's theme. Regardless of level, all students should be able to give a Fahrenheit 451 summary without much difficulty. A Fahrenheit 451 analysis, however, probably depends on your teaching expertise. Effective activities include irony charts, suspense graphic organizers, and a chart detailing the predictions from the novel that have come true.
The book's message must be shared. In a society that overly depends on outward stimulation as opposed to intelligent thought, a book like this should be taught in all high schools. ==Fahrenheit 451 Lesson Plan== Students will bring up the whole, "I'd like to see these fools burn my Kindle (no pun intended)!" anachronistic issue. Admit that Bradbury's inability to foresee the inevitable elimination of traditional books makes the novel less relevant then spring this assignment on them.
Instruct students to make a two-column chart. On the left-side of the chart, readers should write down a Bradbury prediction. On the right side of the chart, readers will write how that prediction has come true. Have them list 5-10 predictions. ==Fahrenheit 451 Lesson Example== ||
Bradbury's Predictions
1) Mildred and her friends interact with TV shows.
2) There are machines where people go to get money 24 hours a day. ||
Prediction Coming True
1) Internet, iPhones, Twitter, Facebook, and other media make interacting with TV shows common.
2) ATMs || ==ELA Common Core Standards Covered== Reading Fahrenheit 451 will help you cover the following ELA common core standards for reading and writing. This is for your administrator, not your students. Kids need student-friendly worded objectives.
RL.9-10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
RL.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
RL.9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
RL.9-10.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone)
RL.9-10.5 Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
W.9-10.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
L.9-10.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
SL.9-10.2 Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source.
==Fahrenheit 451 Summary == Guy Montag, while walking home from work after a long day, meets Clarisse, a vivacious girl who opens his eyes to the futility of his life and of his society. Guy returns home to his wife who has attempted suicide one more time. Guy rebels, but in a society that frowns on individuals, undergoes constant external stimulation, and prohibits the reading of books, he may be in over his head. Making his change of heart even more difficult is Montag's profession. He's a fireman whose job it is to find books...and burn them.==Fahrenheit 451 Analysis==
Legendary Science Fiction writer Ray Bradbury has written hundreds of novels, plays, and short stories including The Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine, The Illustrated Man and, perhaps his most popular, Fahrenheit 451. A Fahrenheit 451 analysis should include the following:
Allusion: Because the central activity of the novel's protagonist is to find books and burn them, along with the house that contains them, there are numerous literary allusions.
Irony: Firemen start fires. Happy people try to kill themselves. Schools promote reckless behavior, movie watching, and sports playing. People are arrested for going on walks.
Suspense: Bradbury creates suspense through pacing, foreshadowing, and dangerous action.
Symbolism: The novel teems with symbolism.
Figurative Language: Metaphors, similes, personification, synechdoche, and hyperbole allows the novel to be interpreted on many levels.
Imagery: Burning houses, ghostlike visitors, desperate rebels, and many more haunting images grace the novel's pages.
Conflict: The novel details one man's inner conflict and his conflict with society.
Bradbury's novel has stood the test of time. Written shortly after World War II, Bradbury's dystopia looks shockingly similar to modern society. The following topics will make your class discussions productive:
Elements of Science Fiction: Startling predictions include a society with TV screens the size of walls; individuals who sit around all day and watch TV; people who never read; the encouragement of recklessness and an overexaggeration of the importance of sports, ATMs, and many more.
The Influcence of the Media: Bradbury's fictional society spends its time being visually stimulated. The media controls individual thought.
Peer Pressure: Teenagers understand peer influence more than adults. The pressure of conformity pervades the novel.
The Importance of Books: The society loses its ability to think because it no longer reads.
Fahrenheit 451 Study Questions
These Fahrenheit 451 questions will help you to prepare for a class discussion or quiz on the book. They'll test your understanding of the work and get you thinking about the important ideas behind it.
1. Other than censorship what problems exist in the dystopic society envisioned by Bradbury?
Violent youth, fast cars, invasive media, intolerant minority and special interest groups, the disintegration of familial ties, the ostracism of anyone who is unusual, and the ineffectiveness of government schools all play a role in the disintegration of Bradbury's dystopic society.
2. To what extent have the Fahrenheit 451 predictions come true?
Violent crime among youth has increased steadily over the past 20 years. People watch TV on their phone. Political correctness pervades art, media, and politics. American schools have fallen behind their counterparts. Students, for example, often read study guides instead of reading the actual novel.
3. What do you make of Beatty's ability to quote literature and his desire to destroy books?
It is apparent that Beatty has not only read literature but has studied it closely as evidenced by his ability to quote it. Because literature has no definite answer, often contradicts itself, and is fluid in meaning, Beatty despises it. He wants to be in control, but he cannot control the meaning of literature and the study of ideas.
4. What Fahrenheit 451 predictions not mentioned above have come true?
ATMs, unheard of in 1950 when Fahrenheit 451 was originally published, large screen TVs, interactive media (Internet, for example), the proliferation of Caesarian sections, abortion on demand, music and TVs on subways, trains, the dentist office, and grocery stores, the watering down of religion, and an "inefficient, top heavy, tax-mad government" (61) are prevalent today.
5. Faber defines the value of books. What is it and does it apply only to books?
Books have quality, pores, features, texture, depth, telling detail, fresh detail. Good writers touch life. Faber comments that society needs quality, be it books, good TV programs, plays, or thoughtful music, Society needs time to digest the meaning of things and the freedom to act on it.
6. Why do Faber and Montag feel they must change the way things are?
Nobody's happy. Suicides abound. They're always at war.
Unpublish
Fahrenheit 451
Unpublish
|| Myvocabulary.com
|| Trivia Questions
|| Fahrenheit 451
|| Common Core Standards Alignment - Fahrenheit 451
FAHRENHEIT 451 LITERATURE GUIDE; GRADES
9-11
READING: LITERATURE
GRADES 9-10
KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
RL.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Note-Taking and Summarizing activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.9-10.2. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the
course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an
objective summary of the text.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Note-Taking and Summarizing activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.9-10.3. Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations)
develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the
theme.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
CRAFT AND STRUCTURE
RL.9-10.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including
figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on
meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or
informal tone).
Assessment Preparation activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.9-10.5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it
(e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery,
tension, or surprise.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
INTEGRATION OF KNOW LEDGE AND IDEAS
RL.9-10.9. Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work
Allusions/Terminology
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RANGE OF READING AND LEVEL OF TEXT COMPLEXITY
RL.9-10.10. By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and
poems, in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high
end of the range.
By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the
high end of the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
GRADES 11-12
KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
RL.11-12.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves
matters uncertain.
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Note-Taking and Summarizing activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.11-12.2. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development
over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a
complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Note-Taking and Summarizing activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.11-12.3. Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements
of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are
introduced and developed).
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
CRAFT AND STRUCTURE
RL.11-12.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including
figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and
tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or
beautiful.
Allusions/Terminology
Assessment Preparation activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.11-12.5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text
(e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution)
contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.11-12.6. Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly
stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
INTEGRATION OF KNOW LEDGE AND IDEAS
RL.11-12.9. Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century
foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat
similar themes or topics.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RANGE OF READING AND LEVEL OF TEXT COMPLEXITY
RL.11-12.10. By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and
poems, in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the
high end of the range.
READING: INFORMATIONAL TEXTS
GRADES 9-10
KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
RI.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
RI.9-10.2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text,
including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary
of the text.
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
RI.9-10.3. Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order
in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are
drawn between them.
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
GRADES 11-12
KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
RI.11-12.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves
matters uncertain.
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
WRITING
GRADES 9-10
PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF WRITING
W.9-10.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined
in standards 1–3 above.)
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.9-10.5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying
a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.9-10.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared
writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display
information flexibly and dynamically.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RESEARCH TO BUILD AND PRESENT KNOWLEDGE
W.9-10.7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including
a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate;
synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under
investigation.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.9-10.8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using
advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research
question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding
plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RANGE OF WRITING
W.9-10.10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and
shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
GRADES 11-12
PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF WRITING
W.11-12.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined
in standards 1–3 above.)
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.11-12.5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or
trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and
audience.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.11-12.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or
shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RESEARCH TO BUILD AND PRESENT KNOWLEDGE
W.11-12.7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question
(including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when
appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject
under investigation.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.11-12.8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using
advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the
task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of
ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for
citation.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.11-12.9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and
research.
Apply grades 11–12 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-,
nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two
or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics”).
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RANGE OF WRITING
W.11-12.10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision)
and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes.
Standards Focus activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SPEAKING & LISTENING
GRADES 9-10
COMPREHENSION AND COLLABORATION
SL.9-10.1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in
groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on
others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
PRESENTATION OF KNOW LEDGE AND IDEAS
SL.9-10.4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically
such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance,
and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SL.9-10.5. Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive
elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add
interest.
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SL.9-10.6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal
English when indicated or appropriate.
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
GRADES 11-12
COMPREHENSION AND COLLABORATION
SL.11-12.1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in
groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on
others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
PRESENTATION OF KNOW LEDGE AND IDEAS
SL.11-12.4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct
perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives
are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose,
audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SL.11-12.5. Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive
elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add
interest.
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SL.11-12.6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal
English when indicated or appropriate.
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
LANGUAGE
GRADES 9-10
CONVENTIONS OF STANDARD ENGLISH
L.9-10.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when
writing or speaking.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Assessment Preparation activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.9-10.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation,
and spelling when writing.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Assessment Preparation activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
KNOW LEDGE OF LANGUAGE
L.9-10.3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to
make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
VOCABULARY ACQUISITION AND USE
L.9-10.4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases
based on GR ADES 9–10 RE ADI NG AND CONTENT, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.9-10.5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word
meanings.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.9-10.6. Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases,
sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level;
demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase
important to comprehension or expression.
Allusions/Terminology
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
GRADES 11-12
CONVENTIONS OF STANDARD ENGLISH
L.11-12.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when
writing or speaking.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Assessment Preparation activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities L.11-12.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation,
and spelling when writing.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Assessment Preparation activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
KNOW LEDGE OF LANGUAGE
L.11-12.3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts,
to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or
listening.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.11-12.4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases
based on GR ADES 11–12 RE ADING AND CONTENT, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.11-12.5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in
word meanings.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.11-12.6. Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases,
sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level;
demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase
important to comprehension or expression.
Allusions/Terminology
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Read
Standards Focus activities
|| Differentiated Instruction
|| Introduction
• Introduction to new unit
• Begin reading Fahrenheit 451
• Collect metaphors (5 per chapter)
• Read part one and questions
|| Fahrenheit 451
http://www.litcharts.com/files/pdf/printer/fahrenheit451-LitChart.pdf
http://www.livebinders.com/media/get/MzAzNTMzMw==
Project(s) Sheet
http://www.livebinders.com/media/get/MzAzNTMzNQ==
4-Square Character Analysis
http://www.livebinders.com/media/get/MzAzNTM1Mw==
Schedule:
http://www.livebinders.com/media/get/NDI2NjIzNA==
Reader's Guide - Introduction
The three main sections of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 all end in fire. The novel focuses on Guy Montag, a fireman. In the first section, we discover that Montag is a professional book burner, expected to start fires instead of putting them out. For years he has done his job obediently and well. Then one day, he is called upon to burn the books of a Mrs. Hudson, who prefers to die rather than leave her library. Furtively, Montag pockets some of her books, haunted by the idea that a life without books might not be worth living after all.
As Montag begins to read deeply for the first time in his life,Fahrenheit 451's second section traces his growing dissatisfaction with the society he is paid to defend. He seeks out the counsel of an old man named Faber, whom he once let off easy on a reading charge. Together they agree to copy a salvaged Bible, in case anything should happen to the original.
Montag's boss at the firehouse, Beatty, senses his disenchantment and interrogates him until their confrontation is interrupted by a fire call. Responding to the address, Montag is expected to start a conflagration considerably closer to home.
Fahrenheit 451's final section finds Montag seizing his own fate for the first time. He avenges himself on Beatty and strikes out for the countryside. There he finds a resistance force of readers, each one responsible for memorizing—and thereby preserving—the entire contents of a different book. As they bide their time in hope of a better future, a flash appears on the horizon: While society was staring at full-wall television screens and medicating itself into a coma, the largest fire yet has broken out.
The book's three holocausts expand concentrically. The death of a stranger by fire in the first third becomes the destruction of Montag's own house in the second. The implication is that, had Montag paid greater attention to his neighbor's plight, he might not have found himself in the same predicament soon afterward. Trouble down the street leads to trouble at home, and trouble at home to trouble abroad. For a book once pigeonholed as science fiction, this structural savvy is one more proof that Bradbury started out writing for the pulps and wound up writing for the ages.
"It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. "
-Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451
|| Introduction
||
|| myvocabulary.com - Fahrenheit 451
|| Fahrenheit 451 Steppenwolf.org Study Guide & Resource
|| Essential Question 2 & Reading Time
• Share metaphors
• Discussion on first half of Part One
• Reading time
|| Essential Question 3; Round Table Discussion; Part I Quiz; Reading Time
• Part One Due/Questions
• Round Table Discussions
- Quiz
• Reading time (Part 2 due next class)|| Essential Question 4; Round Table Discussions; Myvocabulary.com & lit. vocab. & metaphors
• Part Two reading comp. questions due today
- Round Table Discussions
• Review vocabulary both myvocabulary.com for Farenheit 451 & literary vocabulary• Share metaphors for part 2
|| Essential Question 5; Write; Round table discussion; video clip
• Quiz literary terms
• Round table discussion
• Ray Bradbury video
|| Finish Novel; Discussions; & Essay
• Quiz on book and words
• Bring 15 metaphors
• All questions are due
• Round Table Discussion on novel
• What does reading have to offer? What does it have that scares people?
• View Pleasantville online
• Write essay comparing themes of F451 and Pleasantville (400 words or more)
HW: complete essay (400-500 words)
|| Summary of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
These section summaries from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury free your brain from having to figure out what happens and allows it to examine why it happens.
==The Hearth and the Salamander==
Guy Montag is a fireman in the future. Firemen in the future start fires. Books are illegal and firemen burn books and the houses where they are found along with an occasional reader. Guy believes lighting books on fire is a noble profession; much in the same way a 12-year old believes having a match fight in the kitchen is an excellent way to spend a Friday night.
On his way home one evening, Guy meets his new neighbor, Clarisse, who challenges everything Guy believes. She mentions, for example, that firemen used to put out fires and not start them. Guy is strangely attracted to her. Although reading, taking walks alone, and engaging in conversation is unacceptable to Guy, an adult fireman being attracted to a seventeen-year-old complete stranger is OK.
Clarisse asks him if he is happy. As Guy walks into his home he realizes he's not. As he enters his bedroom he notices Mildred, his ear phone wearing, TV watching, no-brained drone of a wife has attempted suicide (again). Two hospital workers arrive and pump her stomach as the sonic boom of fighter jets is heard overhead.
Guy runs into Clarisse the next day on her way to a psychiatric appointment which the government has forced her to undergo.
Remember when you worked at McDonalds, headed over to Burger King, and ate three Whoppers? As a result, you felt guilty peddling Big Macs to unsuspecting meat-eaters. That's how Guy feels at the firehouse after speaking with Clarisse.
The mechanical hound at the firehouse makes Montag feel uneasy, not "there's a doberman sniffing my crotch uneasy," but a "there's a mechanical hound that could track me down, inject me with poison, and kill me, and I'm feeling a little freaked out right now because I'm harboring illegal thoughts about reading, but I'm OK about my attraction to the seventeen-year old stranger even though I'm an adult firefighter with a wife" uneasy.
The two speak daily on Montag's commute home. At work Montag begins to ask questions about what firemen used to do. The alarm rings and the crew speeds toward a house where books have been discovered in the attic. As the books, the house, and the old lady who lives there burst into flames, Guy sneaks a book under his coat.
Montag returns home, realizes his relationship with his wife is meaningless. She only talks about TV. He calls in sick to work and tells Mildred he wants to quit. They argue. Captain Beatty, Montag's boss arrives. He knows what's going on, explains to Montag the danger of books, allows him to come to work later and return the book he stole from the old lady's. Beatty leaves and Montag begins reading Gulliver's Travels (which many a high school student believe is punishment enough).
Analysis: Montag's world is crumbling. The society in which he lives is constantly at war and no one is able to think for himself. Suicides are common. Book burning is the law. Up until meeting Clarisse, Montag is not only fine with it, he's an agent of the book burners. Clarisse has opened his eyes to a new reality. Just like the McDonalds worker who begins eating Whoppers and finds Big Mac's repulsive, Montag realizes he must change, but change in this society is dangerous.==The Sieve and the Sand==
Montag and Mildred read. Montag has no clue what he is reading. Because Sparknotes are no longer available, Montag decides he needs a teacher and calls a man he met in the park long ago. Montag goes back to his books and ponders whether or not his copy of the Bible is the last one in existence. Mildred invites friends over to watch interactive TV. Montag hops on the subway to go to Faber's, the reader he met at the park.
As he attempts to memorize Bible verses, he is constantly distracted by a toothpaste jingle, gets angry, waves the book, and starts shouting. He arrives at Faber's, who explains why people are unhappy: they need quality information, time to digest it, and the freedom to act on it.
Montag returns home, turns off the TV, and reads to Mildred's friends. He then makes fun of them and tells them to go home to their miserable lives. Montag goes to work and hands Beatty the book. Beatty confounds Montag with a litany of literary quotations. The alarm rings and the firefighters head to Montag's house.
Analysis: If ever you rob a bank and get away with it, don't buy a mansion and three Ferraris. If ever you live in a society that burns books and you steal one, don't start waving it at people while yelling. Montag is obviously unable to handle the responsibility thrust upon him.
Burning Bright
Mildred speeds away in a taxi. Montag's house is destroyed and Montag is arrested. Beatty taunts Montag with more literary quotes and learns a valuable lesson: never taunt somebody with literary quotes who is holding a flamethrower. After Faber becomes charcoal, Montag is attacked by the mechanical hound, which injects anesthesia into Montag's leg before being blasted by the flame thrower.Montag flees, hears that war has been declared, and that he is being pursued by law enforcement and a new mechanical hound. Faber instructs him to follow the railroad tracks to St. Louis.
Montag watches himself being chased. He reaches the railroad tracks and meets a group of intellectuals. The men invite Montag to enjoy the chase on his portable TV. The news shows the pursuers kill a man they identify as Montag. The intellectuals have perfected a way of memorizing books.
As Montag ponders his new life, jets fly over and destroy the city. The intellectuals discuss their plan to reintroduce books when the time is right.
Analysis: Montag is reborn to a more meaningful existence and is compared to a Phoenix, a mythological bird who rises from the ashes.
|| Fahrenheit 451 Quotes
Fahrenheit 451 Quotes (with page numbers)
Next time your teacher asks you for Fahrenheit 451 analysis, use one of these quotes instead of looking stupid.Quote: White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows. My uncle drove slowly on a highway once. He drove forty miles an hour and they jailed him for two days (9).
Analysis: Clarisse tells Montag about her "strange" family, the one that actually converses with each other and enjoys nature. This shows just how shallow Montag's society has become. Nobody thinks, one of many Bradbury predictions that have come true.
For example, instead of taking the time to actually read this novel, you hopped online looking for some fancy Fahrenheit 451 quotes without taking the time to do your own analysis (Disregard that last part if, in fact, you read the novel and are just looking for a greater understanding of it (If you are looking for a greater understanding of it, we'll be over later to burn your copy of the book)).
Quote: They had this machine. They had two machines really. One of them slid down into your stomach like a black cobra down an echoing well looking for all the old water and the old time gathered there (14).
Analysis: Bradbury uses figurative language several times in the novel to give machines animal-like qualities. Here we have a simile, a stomach pump being compared to a snake. The snakes are here to revive Montag's wife who has attempted suicide again. Suicides are popular in Montag's society.
Quote: It's really fun. It'll be even more fun when we can afford to have the fourth wall installed. How long you figure before we save up and get the fourth wall torn out and a wall-TV put in. It's only two thousand dollars (20).
Analysis: I tried to help a friend put together a budget. He had massive credit card debt and no savings. I encouraged him to begin paying down his debt and create a savings program. He insisted it was impossible. We went over his expenses. He owned two giant TVs and paid nearly $150 dollars a month on cable. I suggested he cut his cable bill by $50 and start paying off one of his credit cards. He refused. He bought another TV for his bedroom. His wife lost her job and their home went into foreclosure. Now he has his three TVs in a one bedroom apartment. Bradbury was prophetic.
|| Teaching Fahrenheit 451
Once you get over the fact that e-readers and iPhones have made the premise of Fahrenheit 451 irrelevant, you'll be burning down the classroom.
Most students enjoy the novel. You may need to explain the figurative language to help students comprehend the novel's theme. Regardless of level, all students should be able to give a Fahrenheit 451 summary without much difficulty. A Fahrenheit 451 analysis, however, probably depends on your teaching expertise. Effective activities include irony charts, suspense graphic organizers, and a chart detailing the predictions from the novel that have come true.
The book's message must be shared. In a society that overly depends on outward stimulation as opposed to intelligent thought, a book like this should be taught in all high schools.
==Fahrenheit 451 Lesson Plan==
Students will bring up the whole, "I'd like to see these fools burn my Kindle (no pun intended)!" anachronistic issue. Admit that Bradbury's inability to foresee the inevitable elimination of traditional books makes the novel less relevant then spring this assignment on them.
Instruct students to make a two-column chart. On the left-side of the chart, readers should write down a Bradbury prediction. On the right side of the chart, readers will write how that prediction has come true. Have them list 5-10 predictions.
==Fahrenheit 451 Lesson Example==
||
Bradbury's Predictions
1) Mildred and her friends interact with TV shows.
2) There are machines where people go to get money 24 hours a day. ||
Prediction Coming True
1) Internet, iPhones, Twitter, Facebook, and other media make interacting with TV shows common.
2) ATMs ||
==ELA Common Core Standards Covered==
Reading Fahrenheit 451 will help you cover the following ELA common core standards for reading and writing. This is for your administrator, not your students. Kids need student-friendly worded objectives.
- RL.9-10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- RL.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
- RL.9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
- RL.9-10.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone)
- RL.9-10.5 Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
- W.9-10.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
- L.9-10.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
- SL.9-10.2 Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source.
==Fahrenheit 451 Summary ==Guy Montag, while walking home from work after a long day, meets Clarisse, a vivacious girl who opens his eyes to the futility of his life and of his society. Guy returns home to his wife who has attempted suicide one more time. Guy rebels, but in a society that frowns on individuals, undergoes constant external stimulation, and prohibits the reading of books, he may be in over his head. Making his change of heart even more difficult is Montag's profession. He's a fireman whose job it is to find books...and burn them.==Fahrenheit 451 Analysis==
Legendary Science Fiction writer Ray Bradbury has written hundreds of novels, plays, and short stories including The Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine, The Illustrated Man and, perhaps his most popular, Fahrenheit 451. A Fahrenheit 451 analysis should include the following:
Bradbury's novel has stood the test of time. Written shortly after World War II, Bradbury's dystopia looks shockingly similar to modern society. The following topics will make your class discussions productive:
Fahrenheit 451 Study Questions
These Fahrenheit 451 questions will help you to prepare for a class discussion or quiz on the book. They'll test your understanding of the work and get you thinking about the important ideas behind it.1. Other than censorship what problems exist in the dystopic society envisioned by Bradbury?
Violent youth, fast cars, invasive media, intolerant minority and special interest groups, the disintegration of familial ties, the ostracism of anyone who is unusual, and the ineffectiveness of government schools all play a role in the disintegration of Bradbury's dystopic society.
2. To what extent have the Fahrenheit 451 predictions come true?
Violent crime among youth has increased steadily over the past 20 years. People watch TV on their phone. Political correctness pervades art, media, and politics. American schools have fallen behind their counterparts. Students, for example, often read study guides instead of reading the actual novel.
3. What do you make of Beatty's ability to quote literature and his desire to destroy books?
It is apparent that Beatty has not only read literature but has studied it closely as evidenced by his ability to quote it. Because literature has no definite answer, often contradicts itself, and is fluid in meaning, Beatty despises it. He wants to be in control, but he cannot control the meaning of literature and the study of ideas.
4. What Fahrenheit 451 predictions not mentioned above have come true?
ATMs, unheard of in 1950 when Fahrenheit 451 was originally published, large screen TVs, interactive media (Internet, for example), the proliferation of Caesarian sections, abortion on demand, music and TVs on subways, trains, the dentist office, and grocery stores, the watering down of religion, and an "inefficient, top heavy, tax-mad government" (61) are prevalent today.
5. Faber defines the value of books. What is it and does it apply only to books?
Books have quality, pores, features, texture, depth, telling detail, fresh detail. Good writers touch life. Faber comments that society needs quality, be it books, good TV programs, plays, or thoughtful music, Society needs time to digest the meaning of things and the freedom to act on it.
6. Why do Faber and Montag feel they must change the way things are?
Nobody's happy. Suicides abound. They're always at war.
Fahrenheit 451
__http://www.triv.net/html/Users/user1924.htm__
COMMON CORE STANDARDS ALIGNMENT
FAHRENHEIT 451 LITERATURE GUIDE; GRADES
9-11
READING: LITERATURE
GRADES 9-10
KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
RL.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Note-Taking and Summarizing activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.9-10.2. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the
course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an
objective summary of the text.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Note-Taking and Summarizing activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.9-10.3. Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations)
develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the
theme.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
CRAFT AND STRUCTURE
RL.9-10.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including
figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on
meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or
informal tone).
Assessment Preparation activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.9-10.5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it
(e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery,
tension, or surprise.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
INTEGRATION OF KNOW LEDGE AND IDEAS
RL.9-10.9. Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work
Allusions/Terminology
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RANGE OF READING AND LEVEL OF TEXT COMPLEXITY
RL.9-10.10. By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and
poems, in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high
end of the range.
By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the
high end of the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
GRADES 11-12
KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
RL.11-12.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves
matters uncertain.
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Note-Taking and Summarizing activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.11-12.2. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development
over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a
complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Note-Taking and Summarizing activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.11-12.3. Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements
of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are
introduced and developed).
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
CRAFT AND STRUCTURE
RL.11-12.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including
figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and
tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or
beautiful.
Allusions/Terminology
Assessment Preparation activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.11-12.5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text
(e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution)
contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
RL.11-12.6. Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly
stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
INTEGRATION OF KNOW LEDGE AND IDEAS
RL.11-12.9. Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century
foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat
similar themes or topics.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RANGE OF READING AND LEVEL OF TEXT COMPLEXITY
RL.11-12.10. By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and
poems, in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the
high end of the range.
READING: INFORMATIONAL TEXTS
GRADES 9-10
KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
RI.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
RI.9-10.2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text,
including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary
of the text.
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
RI.9-10.3. Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order
in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are
drawn between them.
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
GRADES 11-12
KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
RI.11-12.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves
matters uncertain.
Author Biography
Comprehension Check questions
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Historical Context articles
WRITING
GRADES 9-10
PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF WRITING
W.9-10.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined
in standards 1–3 above.)
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.9-10.5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying
a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.9-10.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared
writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display
information flexibly and dynamically.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RESEARCH TO BUILD AND PRESENT KNOWLEDGE
W.9-10.7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including
a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate;
synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under
investigation.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.9-10.8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using
advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research
question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding
plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RANGE OF WRITING
W.9-10.10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and
shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
GRADES 11-12
PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF WRITING
W.11-12.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined
in standards 1–3 above.)
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.11-12.5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or
trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and
audience.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.11-12.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or
shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RESEARCH TO BUILD AND PRESENT KNOWLEDGE
W.11-12.7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question
(including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when
appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject
under investigation.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.11-12.8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using
advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the
task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of
ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for
citation.
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
W.11-12.9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and
research.
Apply grades 11–12 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-,
nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two
or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics”).
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
RANGE OF WRITING
W.11-12.10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision)
and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes.
Standards Focus activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SPEAKING & LISTENING
GRADES 9-10
COMPREHENSION AND COLLABORATION
SL.9-10.1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in
groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on
others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
PRESENTATION OF KNOW LEDGE AND IDEAS
SL.9-10.4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically
such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance,
and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SL.9-10.5. Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive
elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add
interest.
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SL.9-10.6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal
English when indicated or appropriate.
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
GRADES 11-12
COMPREHENSION AND COLLABORATION
SL.11-12.1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in
groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on
others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Comprehension Check questions
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
PRESENTATION OF KNOW LEDGE AND IDEAS
SL.11-12.4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct
perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives
are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose,
audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SL.11-12.5. Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive
elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add
interest.
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
SL.11-12.6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal
English when indicated or appropriate.
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
LANGUAGE
GRADES 9-10
CONVENTIONS OF STANDARD ENGLISH
L.9-10.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when
writing or speaking.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Assessment Preparation activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.9-10.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation,
and spelling when writing.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Assessment Preparation activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
KNOW LEDGE OF LANGUAGE
L.9-10.3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to
make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
VOCABULARY ACQUISITION AND USE
L.9-10.4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases
based on GR ADES 9–10 RE ADI NG AND CONTENT, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.9-10.5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word
meanings.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.9-10.6. Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases,
sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level;
demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase
important to comprehension or expression.
Allusions/Terminology
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
GRADES 11-12
CONVENTIONS OF STANDARD ENGLISH
L.11-12.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when
writing or speaking.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Assessment Preparation activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities L.11-12.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation,
and spelling when writing.
Activating Prior Knowledge/Theme activities
Assessment Preparation activities
Comprehension Check questions
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
KNOW LEDGE OF LANGUAGE
L.11-12.3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts,
to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or
listening.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.11-12.4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases
based on GR ADES 11–12 RE ADING AND CONTENT, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.11-12.5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in
word meanings.
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Standards Focus activities
L.11-12.6. Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases,
sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level;
demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase
important to comprehension or expression.
Allusions/Terminology
Assessment Preparation activities
Essay and Writing prompts and activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Reading ideas and activities
Standards Focus activities
Genre and Elements of Literature activities
Pre-Reading and Post-Read
Standards Focus activities
P11GR002.pdf
Question #1: “Write what the world would be like without books.”
• Introduction to new unit
• Begin reading Fahrenheit 451
• Collect metaphors (5 per chapter)
• Read part one and questions
Study Guide:
http://www.litcharts.com/files/pdf/printer/fahrenheit451-LitChart.pdf
http://www.livebinders.com/media/get/MzAzNTMzMw==
Project(s) Sheet
http://www.livebinders.com/media/get/MzAzNTMzNQ==
4-Square Character Analysis
http://www.livebinders.com/media/get/MzAzNTM1Mw==
Schedule:
http://www.livebinders.com/media/get/NDI2NjIzNA==
Reader's Guide - Introduction
The three main sections of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 all end in fire. The novel focuses on Guy Montag, a fireman. In the first section, we discover that Montag is a professional book burner, expected to start fires instead of putting them out. For years he has done his job obediently and well. Then one day, he is called upon to burn the books of a Mrs. Hudson, who prefers to die rather than leave her library. Furtively, Montag pockets some of her books, haunted by the idea that a life without books might not be worth living after all.
As Montag begins to read deeply for the first time in his life,Fahrenheit 451's second section traces his growing dissatisfaction with the society he is paid to defend. He seeks out the counsel of an old man named Faber, whom he once let off easy on a reading charge. Together they agree to copy a salvaged Bible, in case anything should happen to the original.
Montag's boss at the firehouse, Beatty, senses his disenchantment and interrogates him until their confrontation is interrupted by a fire call. Responding to the address, Montag is expected to start a conflagration considerably closer to home.
Fahrenheit 451's final section finds Montag seizing his own fate for the first time. He avenges himself on Beatty and strikes out for the countryside. There he finds a resistance force of readers, each one responsible for memorizing—and thereby preserving—the entire contents of a different book. As they bide their time in hope of a better future, a flash appears on the horizon: While society was staring at full-wall television screens and medicating itself into a coma, the largest fire yet has broken out.
The book's three holocausts expand concentrically. The death of a stranger by fire in the first third becomes the destruction of Montag's own house in the second. The implication is that, had Montag paid greater attention to his neighbor's plight, he might not have found himself in the same predicament soon afterward. Trouble down the street leads to trouble at home, and trouble at home to trouble abroad. For a book once pigeonholed as science fiction, this structural savvy is one more proof that Bradbury started out writing for the pulps and wound up writing for the ages.
"It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. "
-Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451
|| Introduction
||
http://www.myvocabulary.com/word-game-puzzles/fahrenheit-451-vocabulary/
http://www.steppenwolf.org/_ui/_pdf/studyguides/F451_studyguide.pdf
Question 2: “What is the future going to be like? What inventions do you think will be around to make our lives more interesting?”
• Share metaphors
• Discussion on first half of Part One
• Reading time
Question 3: “Do you think that television is making people more or less intelligent?”
• Part One Due/Questions
• Round Table Discussions
- Quiz
• Reading time (Part 2 due next class)Question 4: “This is a different take on Question 1. If all books were banned and reading was illegial, how would your life change?”
• Part Two reading comp. questions due today
- Round Table Discussions
• Review vocabulary both myvocabulary.com for Farenheit 451 & literary vocabulary• Share metaphors for part 2
Question 5: “Write about a positive experience that you had with reading and books. Think about a time when you believed that an idea from a book changed you.”
• Quiz literary terms
• Round table discussion
• Ray Bradbury video
• Finish Fahrenheit 451 for today’s class
• Quiz on book and words
• Bring 15 metaphors
• All questions are due
• Round Table Discussion on novel
• What does reading have to offer? What does it have that scares people?
• View Pleasantville online
• Write essay comparing themes of F451 and Pleasantville (400 words or more)
HW: complete essay (400-500 words)
Summary of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
These section summaries from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury free your brain from having to figure out what happens and allows it to examine why it happens.
==The Hearth and the Salamander==
Guy Montag is a fireman in the future. Firemen in the future start fires. Books are illegal and firemen burn books and the houses where they are found along with an occasional reader. Guy believes lighting books on fire is a noble profession; much in the same way a 12-year old believes having a match fight in the kitchen is an excellent way to spend a Friday night.
On his way home one evening, Guy meets his new neighbor, Clarisse, who challenges everything Guy believes. She mentions, for example, that firemen used to put out fires and not start them. Guy is strangely attracted to her. Although reading, taking walks alone, and engaging in conversation is unacceptable to Guy, an adult fireman being attracted to a seventeen-year-old complete stranger is OK.
Clarisse asks him if he is happy. As Guy walks into his home he realizes he's not. As he enters his bedroom he notices Mildred, his ear phone wearing, TV watching, no-brained drone of a wife has attempted suicide (again). Two hospital workers arrive and pump her stomach as the sonic boom of fighter jets is heard overhead.
Guy runs into Clarisse the next day on her way to a psychiatric appointment which the government has forced her to undergo.
Remember when you worked at McDonalds, headed over to Burger King, and ate three Whoppers? As a result, you felt guilty peddling Big Macs to unsuspecting meat-eaters. That's how Guy feels at the firehouse after speaking with Clarisse.
The mechanical hound at the firehouse makes Montag feel uneasy, not "there's a doberman sniffing my crotch uneasy," but a "there's a mechanical hound that could track me down, inject me with poison, and kill me, and I'm feeling a little freaked out right now because I'm harboring illegal thoughts about reading, but I'm OK about my attraction to the seventeen-year old stranger even though I'm an adult firefighter with a wife" uneasy.
The two speak daily on Montag's commute home. At work Montag begins to ask questions about what firemen used to do. The alarm rings and the crew speeds toward a house where books have been discovered in the attic. As the books, the house, and the old lady who lives there burst into flames, Guy sneaks a book under his coat.
Montag returns home, realizes his relationship with his wife is meaningless. She only talks about TV. He calls in sick to work and tells Mildred he wants to quit. They argue. Captain Beatty, Montag's boss arrives. He knows what's going on, explains to Montag the danger of books, allows him to come to work later and return the book he stole from the old lady's. Beatty leaves and Montag begins reading Gulliver's Travels (which many a high school student believe is punishment enough).
Analysis: Montag's world is crumbling. The society in which he lives is constantly at war and no one is able to think for himself. Suicides are common. Book burning is the law. Up until meeting Clarisse, Montag is not only fine with it, he's an agent of the book burners. Clarisse has opened his eyes to a new reality. Just like the McDonalds worker who begins eating Whoppers and finds Big Mac's repulsive, Montag realizes he must change, but change in this society is dangerous.==The Sieve and the Sand==
Montag and Mildred read. Montag has no clue what he is reading. Because Sparknotes are no longer available, Montag decides he needs a teacher and calls a man he met in the park long ago. Montag goes back to his books and ponders whether or not his copy of the Bible is the last one in existence. Mildred invites friends over to watch interactive TV. Montag hops on the subway to go to Faber's, the reader he met at the park.
As he attempts to memorize Bible verses, he is constantly distracted by a toothpaste jingle, gets angry, waves the book, and starts shouting. He arrives at Faber's, who explains why people are unhappy: they need quality information, time to digest it, and the freedom to act on it.
Montag returns home, turns off the TV, and reads to Mildred's friends. He then makes fun of them and tells them to go home to their miserable lives. Montag goes to work and hands Beatty the book. Beatty confounds Montag with a litany of literary quotations. The alarm rings and the firefighters head to Montag's house.
Analysis: If ever you rob a bank and get away with it, don't buy a mansion and three Ferraris. If ever you live in a society that burns books and you steal one, don't start waving it at people while yelling. Montag is obviously unable to handle the responsibility thrust upon him.
Burning Bright
Mildred speeds away in a taxi. Montag's house is destroyed and Montag is arrested. Beatty taunts Montag with more literary quotes and learns a valuable lesson: never taunt somebody with literary quotes who is holding a flamethrower. After Faber becomes charcoal, Montag is attacked by the mechanical hound, which injects anesthesia into Montag's leg before being blasted by the flame thrower.Montag flees, hears that war has been declared, and that he is being pursued by law enforcement and a new mechanical hound. Faber instructs him to follow the railroad tracks to St. Louis.
Montag watches himself being chased. He reaches the railroad tracks and meets a group of intellectuals. The men invite Montag to enjoy the chase on his portable TV. The news shows the pursuers kill a man they identify as Montag. The intellectuals have perfected a way of memorizing books.
As Montag ponders his new life, jets fly over and destroy the city. The intellectuals discuss their plan to reintroduce books when the time is right.
Analysis: Montag is reborn to a more meaningful existence and is compared to a Phoenix, a mythological bird who rises from the ashes.
Fahrenheit 451 Quotes (with page numbers)
Next time your teacher asks you for Fahrenheit 451 analysis, use one of these quotes instead of looking stupid.Quote: White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows. My uncle drove slowly on a highway once. He drove forty miles an hour and they jailed him for two days (9).
Analysis: Clarisse tells Montag about her "strange" family, the one that actually converses with each other and enjoys nature. This shows just how shallow Montag's society has become. Nobody thinks, one of many Bradbury predictions that have come true.
For example, instead of taking the time to actually read this novel, you hopped online looking for some fancy Fahrenheit 451 quotes without taking the time to do your own analysis (Disregard that last part if, in fact, you read the novel and are just looking for a greater understanding of it (If you are looking for a greater understanding of it, we'll be over later to burn your copy of the book)).
Quote: They had this machine. They had two machines really. One of them slid down into your stomach like a black cobra down an echoing well looking for all the old water and the old time gathered there (14).
Analysis: Bradbury uses figurative language several times in the novel to give machines animal-like qualities. Here we have a simile, a stomach pump being compared to a snake. The snakes are here to revive Montag's wife who has attempted suicide again. Suicides are popular in Montag's society.
Quote: It's really fun. It'll be even more fun when we can afford to have the fourth wall installed. How long you figure before we save up and get the fourth wall torn out and a wall-TV put in. It's only two thousand dollars (20).
Analysis: I tried to help a friend put together a budget. He had massive credit card debt and no savings. I encouraged him to begin paying down his debt and create a savings program. He insisted it was impossible. We went over his expenses. He owned two giant TVs and paid nearly $150 dollars a month on cable. I suggested he cut his cable bill by $50 and start paying off one of his credit cards. He refused. He bought another TV for his bedroom. His wife lost her job and their home went into foreclosure. Now he has his three TVs in a one bedroom apartment. Bradbury was prophetic.
Teaching Fahrenheit 451
Once you get over the fact that e-readers and iPhones have made the premise of Fahrenheit 451 irrelevant, you'll be burning down the classroom.
Most students enjoy the novel. You may need to explain the figurative language to help students comprehend the novel's theme. Regardless of level, all students should be able to give a Fahrenheit 451 summary without much difficulty. A Fahrenheit 451 analysis, however, probably depends on your teaching expertise. Effective activities include irony charts, suspense graphic organizers, and a chart detailing the predictions from the novel that have come true.
The book's message must be shared. In a society that overly depends on outward stimulation as opposed to intelligent thought, a book like this should be taught in all high schools.
==Fahrenheit 451 Lesson Plan==
Students will bring up the whole, "I'd like to see these fools burn my Kindle (no pun intended)!" anachronistic issue. Admit that Bradbury's inability to foresee the inevitable elimination of traditional books makes the novel less relevant then spring this assignment on them.
Instruct students to make a two-column chart. On the left-side of the chart, readers should write down a Bradbury prediction. On the right side of the chart, readers will write how that prediction has come true. Have them list 5-10 predictions.
==Fahrenheit 451 Lesson Example==
||
Bradbury's Predictions
1) Mildred and her friends interact with TV shows.
2) There are machines where people go to get money 24 hours a day. ||
Prediction Coming True
1) Internet, iPhones, Twitter, Facebook, and other media make interacting with TV shows common.
2) ATMs ||
==ELA Common Core Standards Covered==
Reading Fahrenheit 451 will help you cover the following ELA common core standards for reading and writing. This is for your administrator, not your students. Kids need student-friendly worded objectives.
- RL.9-10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- RL.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
- RL.9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
- RL.9-10.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone)
- RL.9-10.5 Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
- W.9-10.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
- L.9-10.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
- SL.9-10.2 Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source.
==Fahrenheit 451 Summary ==Guy Montag, while walking home from work after a long day, meets Clarisse, a vivacious girl who opens his eyes to the futility of his life and of his society. Guy returns home to his wife who has attempted suicide one more time. Guy rebels, but in a society that frowns on individuals, undergoes constant external stimulation, and prohibits the reading of books, he may be in over his head. Making his change of heart even more difficult is Montag's profession. He's a fireman whose job it is to find books...and burn them.==Fahrenheit 451 Analysis==
Legendary Science Fiction writer Ray Bradbury has written hundreds of novels, plays, and short stories including The Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine, The Illustrated Man and, perhaps his most popular, Fahrenheit 451. A Fahrenheit 451 analysis should include the following:
Bradbury's novel has stood the test of time. Written shortly after World War II, Bradbury's dystopia looks shockingly similar to modern society. The following topics will make your class discussions productive:
Fahrenheit 451 Study Questions
These Fahrenheit 451 questions will help you to prepare for a class discussion or quiz on the book. They'll test your understanding of the work and get you thinking about the important ideas behind it.1. Other than censorship what problems exist in the dystopic society envisioned by Bradbury?
Violent youth, fast cars, invasive media, intolerant minority and special interest groups, the disintegration of familial ties, the ostracism of anyone who is unusual, and the ineffectiveness of government schools all play a role in the disintegration of Bradbury's dystopic society.
2. To what extent have the Fahrenheit 451 predictions come true?
Violent crime among youth has increased steadily over the past 20 years. People watch TV on their phone. Political correctness pervades art, media, and politics. American schools have fallen behind their counterparts. Students, for example, often read study guides instead of reading the actual novel.
3. What do you make of Beatty's ability to quote literature and his desire to destroy books?
It is apparent that Beatty has not only read literature but has studied it closely as evidenced by his ability to quote it. Because literature has no definite answer, often contradicts itself, and is fluid in meaning, Beatty despises it. He wants to be in control, but he cannot control the meaning of literature and the study of ideas.
4. What Fahrenheit 451 predictions not mentioned above have come true?
ATMs, unheard of in 1950 when Fahrenheit 451 was originally published, large screen TVs, interactive media (Internet, for example), the proliferation of Caesarian sections, abortion on demand, music and TVs on subways, trains, the dentist office, and grocery stores, the watering down of religion, and an "inefficient, top heavy, tax-mad government" (61) are prevalent today.
5. Faber defines the value of books. What is it and does it apply only to books?
Books have quality, pores, features, texture, depth, telling detail, fresh detail. Good writers touch life. Faber comments that society needs quality, be it books, good TV programs, plays, or thoughtful music, Society needs time to digest the meaning of things and the freedom to act on it.
6. Why do Faber and Montag feel they must change the way things are?
Nobody's happy. Suicides abound. They're always at war.